Surprise Daddy and Cosy Day

I had a rough night last night. The past few have been rough. I can't get comfortable. It's not as much fun as you might think.

This morning Austin went in to work and things had been changed... from where he worked to when he worked and... it's just a big frustrating mess. I want to go into a lot of detail here but it's not my story to tell. I will just ask that you keep his work situation in prayer. He works hard and some things are happening that aren't quite fair and don't make sense but I say that knowing that every time in my life that things happened that didn't seem fair... it was because God had something better planned for me.

I will never forget driving home from the unemployment office in pouring rain back in 2012 after finding out that some *less than true* things had been said about me by my previous employer. I was hurt, mad, discouraged, confused, stressed... honestly, I felt deserted, like I had gone to work for a Christian person whose actions towards me were anything but Christ-like. Then I heard a voice - in my heart or in my head or wherever these thoughts come from - that said, "what man means for your harm, I will use for your good". It's scriptural, not a complete translation, just the substance of what it felt like to me in that moment. What I couldn't have even dreamed in that moment was how useful the *less than truthful* information would become not only in my next job but eventually in my disability case. The things that were said were the exact things that boosted my case.

Anyways... not to dig up old bones but just as a reminder to myself and Austin and all of us, really, that we can never begin to imagine how God weaves these loose threads of our lives into a masterpiece. I mean, he's suffered some indignities but he's still employed.

The change in schedule had Austin off today and working tomorrow... when we were supposed to have Cosette. They also have him off on Sunday and working Monday - when he's scheduled for Jury Duty. Grrr. So at first he wanted to have Cosy on Sunday but realized that since he HAS to be off Monday, they might get him to work Sunday. Or they may just cut his hours even more which... again... so frustrating. He's been so consistent in his job... sigh. But the good news is Tasha was cooperative and had Cosy up and dressed by 8:30 for us to pick her up today. We had breakfast at Chickfila, then went to Walmart to pick up some things and then came home and played on the playpen porch for a few hours.

A few fun things...

Daddy carrying all the things.

There was a stuffed cow by the cash register at Chickfila and I asked the cashier if they were selling them. She didn't think so but said she would check. She surprised us a few minutes later by bringing one out to Cosette - no charge. She said they had a bunch in the office and it was their gift. Don't those kind of things just restore your faith in humanity? They do for me.

Our Walmart run was for some basics but because we were in no hurry and Walmart was practically empty we let Cosy out of the cart and let her just wander around the Halloween section. She doesn't talk a lot but she is very clear with whether or not she likes something. She was really concentrating hard on which things she liked and which things she didn't. I'm sorry... but whenever the babies (toddlers) do things that are adult like it's like when animals take on human characteristics. I was so entertained by her thought process of checking out the Halloween selection, knowing that she has no concept of Halloween or what any of that stuff might be for.

She ended up with a Princess Anna costume (from Frozen) and a cat costume (ears, tail and bowtie). She has only seen the movie Frozen maybe twice? Not much. But last December I took my Christmas money from my grandma and bought Cosette a matching set of Elsa and Anna dolls that sing. Best. Investment. Ever. She loves those dolls! Also, best marketing ever because anything with Elsa and Anna on it draws Cosy's attention. She even eats string cheese packaged in Frozen packaging. She at first wanted the Elsa costume but the one she grabbed was huge so we dug around and found an Anna and she was one happy little munchkin. She also picked out this ridiculous Mickey Mouse dressed in a suit and top hat that I went ahead and bought because I know Oliver will love it. She also picked out an Elsa and Anna purse. She wanted two of them but I convinced her that one was enough. She can't say Elsa and Anna but she will point back and forth between them and expects me to say "Elsa. Anna. Elsa. Anna." over and over. She makes a sound like "Eh. Ah. Eh. Ah." along with me sometimes. She also sings along to the dolls but not the actual words yet.

We evolved from the Anna costume into a onesie but she wanted the cape still. Plus the Frozen slippers. So she looks like a little Frozen Superhero.  

We attempted a nap but it wasn't in the cards today and since we weren't going to have her all day, we just waited until she was ready to go to sleep and ran her home quickly. Her mom is about a three minute drive away. While she was downstairs in my living room after the failed nap attempt, she noticed that I had cookie cutters in a container other than the container that usually holds the cookie cutters. She grabbed one and said, "hey..." and furrowed her brow and immediately got up and went to the find the correct place for the cookie cutters. My OCD Princess.

She also noticed that her clothes and diapers were scattered around... I fixed her diaper bag in a rush and Little Kitty climbed in the cabinet and kept swatting my hand every time I tried to get anything out. I gave up and just left him there... and he dragged a bunch of stuff out after I left. She started picking things up and putting them where they go. She is a big fan of taking things out and putting them back in. Today she spent ten minutes trying to put a cap on a marker. She also was insistent that the markers Aunt Marquee gave her that go with her magic coloring book needed to go in the container that I keep my sharpies in. OB....sessive.

Anyways... how cute is she in my cheap-o Walmart cheaters. These are not my actual glasses that I wear. They are what I wore before I had actual prescription glasses. She wanted to wear my REAL glasses so this was a compromise. She was quite proud of herself with the glasses on.

I'm not happy with adobe photo software, especially since every time you sign in they beg you to sign up for the more expensive editing experience which is way more than I want or need. Still searching for something better. I edited the photos in this blog on my phone, just with the standard iPhone stuff.

And that's the end of my Wednesday. At least the part I'm going to blog about. There is a pint of gelato in my future. I hope your day ends similarly well. Love and hugs, y'all!

New Laptop, New Photo Editing Software

It's nearly 1pm and my new laptop has not yet arrived. I'm pouting. It's out for delivery, probably via UPS. A lot of deliveries transfer from UPS & FedEx to our local post office for final delivery because ... I don't know, rural, I guess... and I have had in the past where they say "out for delivery" and it comes the next day with the regular mail run. I guess you can't have it all.

I remember this quote and although the person who said it isn't my favorite, it holds true... He would say that their business could get things done fast, cheap and well-done - but you could only pick two of those. If it was fast and cheap it wouldn't be done well. If it was fast and done well it wouldn't be cheap. If it was cheap and done well it wouldn't be fast... you get the picture.

I feel like living out here in the country gives me a lot of peace and quiet, less stress, slower pace, friendly people... lots of benefits of living in a small town. The downside is that instead of rushing out to a computer store on Friday and replacing my laptop I ordered from Amazon and am at the mercy of whatever delivery system is available. "Slow boat from China" is what it feels like to me.

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It's just after 2pm and my new laptop is here and mostly set up to my liking. The keyboard doesn't have the same feel as my last one - the key spacing is the same, just doesn't have the same grooves worn into it. This laptop has touch screen capability which kinda blows my mind. I haven't investigated all the bells and whistles and I probably won't ever. I'll stumble across them like I always do... if it doesn't do what I want then I'll figure out why. I got the basics done, though.

Unfortunately Picasa has been phased out so I can't download it. It has been my go-to photo editor almost since I got my first digital camera. I'll play around with the new Google Photos page and see what capability it gives me. Stay tuned... it may be the end of grandbaby/cat photos by the dozens.

I'm drinking an Arnold Palmer in his honor ... and because I'm out of the peach tea that I love. I could have made a trip to the store but this is the first day in forever that I've had zero responsibilities and I didn't want to make any unnecessary movements today. The weather is changing which always brings in a different kind of pain. I didn't sleep well last night. Had a hard time finding a comfortable position. You know you have "positional" issues when you attempt to sleep on your knees on an ottoman with your head on a daybed. It felt great on my back and hips but then my knees started complaining. I found a comfy position this morning that was so I awesome I posted about it on Facebook. Then the cat pounced me and screwed everything up again.

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"THERE IS A BOY TOUCHING ME!!!!"

It's now just after 3pm and I've been doing research on photo editing apps. I'm using Adobe Express right now and I don't love it. Picasa allowed me to upload a bunch of photos and quickly flip through them to see what was usable and what wasn't. I almost always adjust the light in my photos and usually crop them. It's a bit clunky with Adobe but I'm going to play around with it and see if I can figure it out. If you have any suggestions for user-friendly free photo editing software, please do share! The photos I'm using in this blog entry are unedited.

This may determine what I do when it's time to get a new digital camera. The only reason I use the digital in addition to my phone is the ease of editing a large number of photos. I can edit on the phone more easily than this Adobe Express is working for me. Changing technology is so frustrating!

Anyways... hope your week is going well. Enjoy the rest of the photos - these are all from Saturday - and I'll hopefully have some more (better, edited) photos to share next time. Love and hugs!

 Oliver investigates Cosette's stash of toys... including dolls... you can see his brain going, "what is this.....?"

 This is Cosette saying, "my chair. don't even think about sitting in my Elsa and Anna chair."

 "I'll just touch her ear...."

This is the balloon that amazed Cosette. She kept looking at the balloon attached to Oliver and saying, "WHOA!" It's funny because she is very quiet and then she says "WHOA!!!" loudly.

 Oliver just wants a hug.

 Cousin Jamie gives Oliver a hand with some water. Not sure whose water. Both babies just tend to grab whatever beverage is closest. Good thing we're not drinkers.

 Playing "what's in the watering can" together.

 Is it just my mushy Nana heart or is the fact that he wants to hug her or touch her the sweetest thing ever? Oliver is such a rough, tough little boy but he is the sweetest! I always said that Austin was my youngest but Cody was my baby because he has the most tender heart. I can see so much of that in Ollie!

Pet the cousin....

My attempt at editing. Major fail. Cute outfit on Cosy, though, right?

















We'll try again tomorrow.

Waiting For My New Computer... RTLM

Welcome to this week's Reasons To Love Monday post!

Today is my mom's birthday! She is celebrating by going to a doctors appointment. Fun for her, right? We actually had a little family gathering on Saturday to celebrate both her and my dad (whose birthday was last week). Cody, Marquee and Oliver drove up from south of Atlanta, my brother Jim and his wife Angie and my sweet niece Jamie joined us and Tasha came over with Cosette. We feasted on chickfila nuggets, fruit, cheese and crackers, pretzels, chips and dip. Angie brought two yummy pies and Marquee made some awesome cupcakes! I posted a lot of pictures on my Facebook and... as soon as my new computer arrives I have about fifty more photos that I took on my digital camera to share. Truthfully... I only took pictures of Oliver and Cosette because I had a bad case of Nana-brain combined with a pretty nasty auto-immune flair (which you can see in some pictures because my face was flaming red). I held up until everyone went home and then have been hibernating ever since.

Today started really yucky as I just honestly am miserable. I was having major chills, coughing, sneezing, aching from head to toe. I took a few magic potions and I am feeling a little better than I started off. My only duty for the day is keeping the animals alive - RTLM! - and I am grateful. The cats are fed and Oscar is tucked in beside me in my Nest. Best purchase of my life - the extra wide recliner so that the dog can lay comfortably beside me. I have a huge comforter doubled over twice padding the seat of the chair (helps my hips) so the little doggie can lay his head on the arm of the chair for a little pillow.

My trusty laptop bit the dust on Friday. It was fine and then all of a sudden it was dead. It had a full battery and was plugged up... I got up for a few minutes and came back to nothingness. No amount of poking, prodding, turning off and on, changing batteries, changing power source can lure it out of it's darkness. It was fine and then it wasn't. That's never happened to me before. I've had that laptop approximately 3 years, it is (was) a Lenovo, the economy model and I have used it probably 12 hours a day every day since I got it. I consider that a reasonable amount of use out of it for what I paid although I would have preferred to have some notice that it was about to leave me so that I could have put some time and effort into choosing it's replacement. Ultimately... I just bought another Lenovo, the most current model, because it is inexpensive and I figured there would be less of a learning curve. I am not completely technically ignorant but I also don't consider myself that up to date, either. I don't want to have to read a manual to figure out how to get back online so I bought what I know and I hope it will be reliable. It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. RTLM because Tuesday brings a new computer!

In the meantime I'm using a Toshiba of my mom's that I don't love. The keyboard feels different and ... I don't know. It feels like cooking in someone else's kitchen. I didn't want to download my photos on this computer which is why we will wait until I get the new one.

Someone asked about the photos on the other computer... the good news is that I'm so connected via social media that a lot of my photos, certainly the best ones, are posted on Facebook, the blog and Instagram. I use picasa - a google based program - to edit my photos and therefore can access most of my ol photos via google chrome. There are some documents that are saved that I can't access so I may take my dead computer to someone who knows how to take stuff off of the hard drive to be able to get those things back. Not the end of the world either way.

One thing I did want to share from Saturday - it was the first time that Oliver and Cosette really played together and it was so precious to watch them interact! Oliver is a little fish - he loves to get wet - so we let him play with Cosette's Hello Kitty sprinkler (that was a gift from my Cousin Kevin and his wife Tobye - thanks guys!). Cosette was afraid of the water but she was absolutely enthralled with Oliver playing in it. She clapped her hands and laughed out loud at him! He also had gotten a hold of a birthday balloon and was running around with it attached to him. Cosette would point and say, "WHOA!" They also played together on my dad's keyboard and there are a few really cute videos on my Facebook of that. Two little babies wearing just their diapers plunking away at a keyboard - honestly, if there's anything cuter in the world, I don't think I could handle it! I know as a Nana I can't guarantee that these two little cousins will always be buddies but I want to do all I can to connect them. Cousins are so important! Mine are to me, anyways. They're still so little and Oliver is so freakishly strong that we have to watch them carefully... he pulled Cosy to the ground trying to hug her on Saturday (which was really funny, even though it made Cosy cry for a minute). I got one picture of the two of them both trying to get my lemonade. It's out of focus but it's just so much of my heart... it's precious to me.

Also on Saturday (but we'll make it a RTLM because I'm only posting this now!) my brother and sister-in-law brought over my nieces' old picnic table and sandbox for Oliver and Cosette to use! They even brought brand new sand for us! It all fits nicely on my screened porch and I am thrilled to have the babies - now toddlers - use them. My living room and porch look a bit like a day care... as does the upstairs covered porch. Having babies around just brings so much life into the house. Even though it takes me a few days to recover from having them over, it's absolutely worth it.

This week I have nothing on the agenda, just my usuals plus two doctors appointments for mom. The weather is turning milder and we will have temps in the fifties for lows and the upper seventies/low eighties for highs. I'm so ready for it to be cooler! Getting hot aggravates so many things that are wrong with me. As a result I am greeting this week with wide open arms and can't wait to welcome October!

Hope you're all well and that you are finding your own Reasons To Love Monday! Love and hugs!

PS - this dog has gas and it is making my eyes water! RT NOT Love Monday! Whew!

Friday Photo Dump

 

Just wanted to share a few photos that haven't made it onto the blog yet this week. The first two photos - with Oliver and Cody - were from last night. Ollie didn't get a good nap and his teeth were bothering him and he just wanted to cuddle his dad the whole time we talked. Poor baby! His grandma is out of town so he was a bit out of sorts. Next set of photos were from breakfast yesterday.  

Cosette is obsessed with taking things out and putting things back. She sat and took the butter out of the dish and put it back in the dish the whole time we waited for our breakfast. When they brought out our food there was this big pretzel roll on her dad's plate. Cosy snagged it and worked it like a turkey leg all during breakfast.

She even carried that bread out to the car with her after breakfast and was munching on it on the way home! She did eat other things at breakfast - potato pancakes (with onion, even!) pineapple, some applesauce, a few bites of scrambled eggs but the bread was the winner with her! Other photos... hanging out on the covered porch. Those big pillows (like the fuzzy green one) are what I sit on out there so I'm not leaning over as much. It's hard to get up and down a lot so I try to just get down and stay there. Doesn't always work out like I want it to. Yesterday she was really focused on looking out at the lake so she wanted me to pick her up so she could see over the porch rail. That wrecked my back! She's also gotten really fast so when we have her downstairs we have to be ready to run... here she is taking off for my room. She loves my makeup basket... which requires supervision, of course!

  

The above photos are from earlier in the week. I posted them on Facebook, but for those who aren't on Facebook or may have missed them... Oliver in the yellow shirt digging in the big linen chest in their living room... photos captured via Facetime. He is so strong! You can see him bracing the lid with his head so he has two hands free... and then slowly and carefully lowering the lid. You can also see him running toward his dad crying because the lid got him. He's such a boy! 

 This is a Cosy-selfie. Pretty good, right? Some of her pictures yesterday she looked so solemn. She really did have a good day. She got two naps. She ate well. She played outside to her heart's content. We were all exhausted by the end of the day! She loves sitting in the front seat of the car which we (of course) only let her do when the car is not in motion. She's fascinated with all the buttons and knobs.

Tomorrow we're doing a little birthday get together for my parents' birthdays. I'm sure I'll have another hundred photos to share so stay tuned! In the meantime... have a great weekend! Love and hugs, y'all!